I'm dedicating the next year of my life to getting into shape for my schools annual body building competition. It's been 3 weeks now and I've gone down from 217 to 212. This is a good thing. Because I've lost well over 5 pounds of body fat, it's clearly noticeable and I've packed on some weight in muscle as well. I've noticed my calves and biceps getting bigger. They're usually the ones that you can build the fastest. I'm following a strict diet; no candy, soda, or anything of the sort. Taking in good carbs and drinking a protein shake (soy, milk, egg, and rye) before my workouts and taking in more carbs after workouts, in order to provide the body with sufficient energy in the rebuilding process. When it comes to my workouts I go to golds gym and lift there. arms one day (triceps, biceps, fore arms, and shoulder), legs next (calves, quads), and then I do my mid body and back (which also works my shoulders and involves pectorals, abdominals, lats, and other target areas). Then I take a days rest and start the process all over again. I also make sure to run a mile on the treadmill before every workout, in order to raise my body temperature so I prevent injury. Stretching as well, of course. So, I was wondering if anyone else here lifts weights and has ideas as to how I can get bigger, faster. I'm not taking creatine or any other hormones to enhance growth. Just wondering if you guys have any good nutritional tips or workout tips. I'm trying to drop down to 10% or below in body fat as well, that is my goal. However, getting down to 5% would put me at the optimum area.
For muscle mass do high weights, low reps For just general toning, do lower weights, high reps Your diets looking good. Also get some protein in there besides just your protein shake. And try to have a fruit/vegetable with lunch, snacks, and dinner. Chest -Bench Press: For upper chest -Dip Assist Machine: For lower chest -Dumbell Flys -Pushups Abs -Crunches, crunches, and more crunches Biceps -Curls Triceps -Dumbell Flys (from chest) also build triceps -Dip assist machine (from chest) also builds triceps -That rope pulldown excercise. You hold the rope in each hand, pull them down and split em. I forget what its called. Wrists -Masturbate (preferabley not at the gym) -You put a free weight (not a dumbell) onto the thing with a rope attached to it. Tie it, then roll it up, then slowly unroll and put it back down. Back -Well a lot of those previous excercises I do help build all the back muscles Calfs -Calf raises -Running Quads -Bike -A leg machine Hamstrings -Leg machine
i snowboard for three hours twice a week. After doing this for 6 months i have six pack (my baby), my biceps have trippled, i lost 10 kgs, and my calf muscles are freakin huge, if i do say so myslef So, labour intensive activities like that are an added bonus to compliment weightlifting if you have the time
Well done on that.. but all i can say is not to lose weight fast.. Your body needs to know what shape your in every time you lose couple kilo's.. Causes permit damages to your body.. i dont know this but my teacher was telling me, i hardly listen in healthy class only the sex ed lol.. but i was bored at the time and had nothing to do but listen
Don't take a substance to increase your muscle size it will cause you to have a short term muscle mass.
creatine isn't a steroid, it's actually fairly helpful. What it is, is it's a nitrogen-based acid which helps your body anabolize ATP. essentially it helps your body generate more energy. Creatine alone will not make you get bigger in anyway, the idea behind it is that it will help you go further when lifting. Also, you said that calves are some of the easiest parts to add mass onto... consider ir a blessing, that's far from normal, typically they're the hardest part to add onto. the part on the left shows me when I http://forum.bodybuilding.com/photo/data/506/wowow.jpg this is me about 10lbs ago http://forum.bodybuilding.com/photo/data/506/gvf.jpg I haven't been hyper dedicated though, and my diet has essentially been utter crap, but the last month, I've been improving. in all, I've gained around 40-45lbs(20KG for those in Europe)
I do eat fruit, and lots of it. I do a 5 meal plan. Breakfast eat hard boiled egg (whites) and other protein and carbohydrate high foods. Then I have fruit and vegetables the other 3 meals and the last meal is my meal before I do my lifting and then I have a small snack after. But I've found it easy to build my calves, I've seen big improvements in my calves and I've received some compliments too. For abs all I do is crunches. I do a 4X10 (4 sets of 10 reps). Golds gym has this ab machine and you set your resistance weight and do your crunches. It's extremely effective. As for creatine I know what it is but it also dehydrates you. I drink a lot of water as it is but I've tried it and had to drink twice as much.
Im not a big guy, rather thin but being that i also have a high matabalisim, and realy high musle tone which means naturaly i rip rather then build. I suggest if you want bigger mass you lift heavy weight with less reps or to tone life less weight with more reps however prehaps in your situation a even balance would be best. I don't think you'r allowing enough time off with just one day off, dispite your need to build fast i think at your rate its a matter of time before you do your self harm ... burning out can be bad mate, i think you should atleast have 2 days with no lifting and maybe some light stretching. I dont workout these days, well since i collapsed my lung in late 04 and was operated on in early 05, but i am a 1st year cabinet maker apprentice so i get my far share of lifting kitchens and overheads ... thats plenty for me, i can feel my strenght increasing without beefing up. Best of luck with your goals, but be careful.
it's not that it dehydrates you, it's that it makes your muscles retain more water. it does require that you take in more water though
Walk on your tip toes when you're not working out. I'm not even joking, for the first maybe 11 years of my life I walked on my tip-toes because of a problem that caused the tendons near my feet to be too short. Walking on my tip toes caused my calves to develop a massive amount of muscle which I must say has helped me tons. Now I'm sure you won't be walking on your tip toes constantly for that long but maybe doing it when your not working out (or not in public ) may help your calves stay strong. Oh and I'm proud to say I no longer walk on my tip toes!
Well I do have a full day rest but if you look at my schedule there is 3 days worth of rest in between each muscle group. That equals to 72 hours of rest. It's recommended that you get 48-72 hours of rest before working out a specific muscle group.
I don't do too much work on my calves because those usually stay strong just from playing sports. Basketball, handball, squash, track, and snowboarding all work it great
